Man who killed spouse is denied parole

On Nov. 15, 1981, Michael Scott Keen took his pregnant wife offive months out on his boat for a relaxing Sunday afternoon on the water.

Within a few hours she was dead, pushed overboard 15 miles off the coast of Dania Beach as golden oldies played on the radio. Her husband calmly circled his boat, the Foreplay Too, for hours until she finally gave up her fight to live and slipped beneath the water.

Anita Lopez, 22, died that day for the $200,000 in life insurance that her husband, then 33, hoped would let him retire early. He told police she accidentally fell off the boat.

Arrested three years later as he was about to wed again, Keen was convicted of first-degree murder. On Wednesday, the Florida Parole Commission decided that he would never leave prison.

When convicted of the crime in 2002 - after his fourth trial on the same offense - Keen was sentenced to life in prison, where he had been since 1984. The law at the time he was charged allowed inmates to apply for parole after serving 25 years behind bars.

But parole commissioners agreed that Keen, now 60 years old, shouldn't leave prison for at least 175 years - until Aug. 23, 2159.

"I feel closure because as long as he lives, he will have that on his conscience ... he will have to live with the guilt and face God. God will have to take his own punishment on him," William Lopez, Anita's young brother, said after the commission's decision.

Lopez had traveled to Tallahassee to make a personal plea, begging the state not to forget his sister, the victim, and the impact the tragedy had on his family.

"Due to the selfish desires of this vacant soul ... my sister no longer has the opportunity to live the life she had dreamed of living," he told the parole commission. "Our family was shattered."

The Lopez family left Cuba in 1971, hoping to find a better life in Florida. Anita was working at a tractor factory in Miami when she met Keen.

Soon after they married, they took out two $50,000 insurance policies on her life, with Keen the beneficiary. They were worth double in the case of accidental death.

"He didn't want to be part of the family, so he isolated her," said William Lopez, who was 9 years old when his sister was murdered. "My mom went to their house one day and saw her doing the insurance papers. She took it as a sign and told Anita, 'You're basically signing your death warrant.'"

Keen's first three convictions were overturned because of procedural errors. The first two juries sentenced him to death. The third jury was evenly split, six jurors seeking the death penalty, six voting for life, so the judge had to impose the life sentence. As a result, during the fourth trial the state had no option but to seek life in prison.

"This is one of the worst cases I've ever tried, mainly because of the cruelty. How cruel can you be, just watching your wife suffer? You know she knows of her impending death," said Broward Assistant State Attorney Chuck Morton after the parole meeting. Morton prosecuted Keen the third and fourth time.

Earlier he told parole commissioners that Keen murdered Anita while she was pregnant because he didn't want to care for a baby.

"He did nothing in his lifetime but scam, scheme and lie. She was nothing more than a cash cow to him," he said.

William Lopez, now 36 and living in West Palm Beach, said he plans to make a documentary of his sister's life, hoping that it will educate other young women about what warnings signs to look for and how to avoid abusive relationships.

"I want to show other women out there that there are people who want to hurt you," he said.

Linda Kleindienst can be reached at lkleindienst@sunsentinel. com or 850-224-6214.